February 2009 Archives

The efficient functioning of the Internet, on which modern society has come to depend, relies on the efficient functioning of the domain name system.  The abuse of that system is at the heart of the malware industry. That governance of that system, from ICANN downwards, is run by registrars for registrars. The registrars range from the reputable to the criminal. ICANN recently discovered that one of those at the heart of a web of malpractice was indeed a convicted criminal.

On 3rd February the Campaign for Cambridge Freedom won a key vote in the Regent Council to help protect the academic freedom that made the University and its acolytes (from Harvard onwards) "the Devil's Flamethrower" (article in THE) with over 800 years of sometimes very uncomfortable discussion on the nature of truth, from Duns Scotus to Hawking (via Erasmus, Newton and Darwin) and Walsingham to Dearlove (via Turing and Klugman)..

This morning the TImes has yet another article on Government IT failures. Last week I sat in on yet another discussion on how to avoid yet another generation of big public sector IT fiascos. I will not repeat my "why do we never learn" message. Instead I will boil it down to six questions.